By TARA TERRANOVA //
Krista Lochren believes there’s hope for readers, even in the age of AI.
Artificial intelligence, Amazon and other addictive algorithms are designed to steal attention spans. But a love of the page – and a sense of community – feed Lochren’s hope, which has come to life inside her independent Mount Sinai bookstore.
At Book & Mortar, she sees and feels a shared love for reading, and that communal spirit, every day. This rewards her vision for building a reading community, a lifelong dream she finally brought to fruition with a bold choice: Lochren exclusively stocks her new bookshop’s shelves with fiction titles only.
This unconventional decision reflects her personal tastes – she’s an avid reader of the mystery and fantasy genres – and a reactionary response to the modern world’s abundant chaos.
“People are looking for places to escape for an hour and not think about what’s stressing us all out,” she said. “If you come into the store, you’ll just find stories – no headlines about war, politics or religion.
“It’s a happy place.”
Mike and Krista Lochren: Read any good books lately?
After earning a degree in communications at Farmingdale State College, the Sound Beach native was unfulfilled by her first entry-level communications job out of college – and didn’t particularly enjoy waitressing, either, something she’d done in school and returned to when communications didn’t pan out.
On the bright side, her daily commute took her past The Gift Corner, a charming giftshop that had brightened North Country Road in Mount Sinai since opening in 2012 (the building has enjoyed a much longer life, serving previously as a post office and a general store). Lochren, a Sound Beach native and Port Jefferson Station resident who’d long dreamed of opening an independent bookstore, had admired the bucolic back-road site for most of her life.
She finally decided to pursue her bookstore dream last year – a leap of faith at a time when larger bookstore chains find themselves in a life-and-death battle with digital booksellers, but interest in independent booksellers is rising fast.
Undaunted by Amazon and emboldened by the rebirth of indie sellers, Lochren was just about to sign a lease on a Patchogue property – when The Gift Corner suddenly closed, and the space of her dreams became available.
She and her husband, Mike Lochren, closed on the corner lot in December 2024. Several months of renovations would follow, as the entrepreneur – with lots of help from friends and family – reworked the 3,000-square-foot giftshop into a second home, of sorts, filled with vintage couches and plush armchairs.
Book & Mortar finally opened in June, presenting an intimate space where people can sit and read, or write, or share conversations about their favorite books (Lochren is currently enjoying “Royal Assassin” by Robin Hobb). A self-serve coffee bar anchors the shop’s center, flanked by snacks and shelves full of gift items: crossword compendiums, candles, specialty teas, many locally made.
Reading all about it: To avoid political pressures, Lochren stocks her shop with fiction titles only.
Now enjoying its first October, the store is adorned with seasonal charm: suspended candlesticks, draped cobwebs and skeletons peering from behind bookshelves, creating a spooky refuge for Halloween devotees.
The supernatural touch is perfect for a shop that clearly favors the mystery, fantasy and science-fiction genres – and more telling attention to detail from Lochren, who’s quickly evolved her startup from a retail space to a gathering place.
That’s been her plan all along. Lochren began scheduling weekly events from the start, covering a broad spectrum of activities: writers’ workshops, book clubs, tarot-reading classes and more.
“I always knew I wanted to do events,” she noted. “I grew up out here, and there is not a whole lot to do as an adult to find community with other adults of similar interests.”
Book & Mortar has also attracted the attention of local authors, who often approach Lochren about promoting their work. The result is a growing literary ecosystem, where local writers can find shelf space and attract new audiences and readers can meet similar enthusiasts and access voices they might not discover elsewhere.
Do you know me?: North Shore motorists will likely recognize this Mount Sinai exterior, but they might remember it as The Gift Corner (or an old post office, from back in the day).
The overwhelmingly positive response her new bookstore has received has left Lochren skeptical about claims of widespread social disconnection in the Digital Age. From behind her counter, she sees the reverse – and senses that “a lot of people want to come back into reality and read.”
This was evidenced by one of her fondest moments as an indie bookstore owner, when two strangers reached for the same book and immediately started fangirling together. It was proof positive that, at least in Lochren’s little haven, “people are happy.”
Also making people happy is Book & Mortar’s online ordering system. The shop is relatively small and shelf space is limited, but customers can place orders for non-stocked items directly through the store’s website, with most orders fulfilled within three days.
It’s not same-day Amazon deliveries, but it jibes with the store’s laid-back motif (and with in-store deliveries only, its in-person community-building masterplan). And the website is seeing plenty of action, according to Lochren, who’s “just rolling with it” as her increasingly busy startup enters its first holiday season.
More events are coming, she added, more of what Book & Mortar does best and its owner loves most: fostering a happy community.
“You can talk to people on the Internet all you want, but it is not the same as going somewhere,” Lochren said. “You can comment on a post as enthusiastically as you want, but it’ll never be the same.”
